Like the mythical sirens that tempted seafarers with their songs, Provincetown has always had a similar call to the mooncussers and pirates of the past, to the Portuguese who built our little fishing village, to the painters and poets and writers who have shared the magic of the dunes across the world and as a haven for the LGBTQI+ community.

In 1916, when the Boston Globe headline read “Biggest Art Colony in the World At Provincetown” there were more than 300 artists in town as well as six schools of art in operation, including those led by prolific painters, Charles Hawthorne, Henry Hensche and E. Ambrose Webster. The Great War tearing through Europe led artists who normally spent their time in Paris to flee to Provincetown.

Over the years the cost of living, a Cape wide housing crisis and a lack of affordable spaces to create has eroded the very fabric of what built our little town.

The mission of Keep Cape Odd is to celebrate the oddities and uniqueness of our community that have united all of us for centuries and to stem the loss of our creative and queer community and provide artists, musicians and creatives of all walks of life with safe housing and the ability to live and work here again.

Our long term goal is to acquire homes and creative spaces through donor funding, grants and estate planning that would be deed restricted as creative housing but in the short term, we aim to raise enough money to rent rooms from guesthouses and local landlords who are willing to offer short and long term housing at affordable rates while being able to offset that cost with a tax deduction via a donation to our 501c3 non-profit.

With our current political climate and an uncertain global economy, the town has seen a change in rentals and we hope to be able to fill some of the vacancies in town in a way that will benefit our community as a whole.

Please consider supporting us as we begin this journey to “Keep Cape Odd”!